(Updated) Selfies Are Not A Cry For Help, Jezebel – #feministselfie

Jezebel writer Erin Gloria Ryan pissed off feminists everywhere today, by saying that “selfies” are a cry for help. I disagree – but I’m not picking on you Erin. I just think you should take a selfie real quick. It feels really good.

I haven’t taken a selfie in a while, but today I decided in the spirit of rebellion I would take one. Here’s the thing – I’m a 40-year-old woman. I’m pretty sure Ryan is speaking to adults like myself and not teenagers when she says:

Stop this. Selfies aren’t empowering; they’re a high tech reflection of the fucked up way society teaches women that their most important quality is their physical attractiveness.

Nor is the proliferation of selfies into a generation of women who are old enough to know better a promising development; it’s a nightmare.

I disagree. Here’s mine:

This is the first shot that I took when Eve sent me a message cluing me into the Twitterstorm. I’m not wearing make-up and my hair isn’t brushed – but I was able to drag it into Instagram and put a nice filter on it. This image is how I see myself – and in that way it’s a reflection of who I really am. Somehow, I’m not collapsing into my own loneliness having taken it – unlike Ryan:

The picture that accompanies my byline on this very website is a selfie. I’ve posted selfies to Facebook, and Twitter. I always feel bad about it; it always takes several tries to not look stupid, and even now, I kind of hate all of them. “Hey guys, I’m by myself!” my selfie says, “Can you please somehow indicate that other humans are out there so that I do not collapse into my own loneliness????? LOLOLOL” Please, god, no.

Lay off yourself, girl – and every other woman around you. It’s okay to take a few images and find one that you like. It’s okay to like pictures of yourself. In a society that is constantly telling us we’re not good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough – I actually find it really comforting that we’re able to take pictures of ourselves that we actually like.

So – without further ado – here’s a round-up of what I think are the most bad-ass #feministselfie’s on Twitter today.

First – the Mommyish crew:

And the rest of the bad-ass ladies of the Twitterverse…

Selfies are empowering. Women are in control of how they look in the pic and where they post it. #feministselfie